


We met online, and now we are on the same team

by gayunicorn



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, PREATH - Freeform, Sohara, USWNT, krashlyn - Freeform, past osolo, tinder au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2020-11-07 18:17:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 15,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20821712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayunicorn/pseuds/gayunicorn
Summary: Alex and Allie force Kelley to make a Tinder account after her breakup with Hope. She meets this blonde on there and they text each other. Kelley falls for Emily, even though they've never met before, but Kelley is keeping part of her life hidden. What happens when she comes clean?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Kelley gets a Tinder

“C’mon Worms, just do it!”

“Seriously you have been wallowing in your break up for long enough. I know you loved her, but it’s been 3 months.”

Kelley is in her hotel room with Alex and Allie at January camp. She has been holed up in her room whenever she isn’t at soccer, and her friends have had enough of it. They are trying to get her to make a Tinder in order to get back out there after Hope broke her heart. She has no interest. She just wants to stay in her bed and listen to sad music and wallow. Is that too much to ask? 

“I don’t want to guys. The only people on there are lonely and looking for a hookup to make them feel better. That isn’t me. I don’t like one night stands and you know it.” Kelley has explained this to them so many times.

“You never know Kel. You could find the love of your life on here.” Allie tries to convey. The only problem is that Kelley has already found the love of her life, and she broke her heart. Kelley just rolls her eyes in response. This isn’t the first time they’ve had this same conversation. Kelley is done with all this nagging. She makes up her mind and agrees to make a profile just to get them off her back. 

“Fine. You guys can make me a profile if it will stop all of this. I can’t promise anything will happen but you can make me one.”

Alex and Allie cheer like they have just won the lottery. Kelley pulls out her phone and tosses it at them. They immediately download the app and get started. 

Name: Kelley  
Birthday: August 4, 1988  
Age: 27  
Gender: Female  
Occupation: 

“What should we put her occupation as?” Alex asks as they make the account. Kelley rolls her eyes again. Why did she agree to this?

“Oh! What about something really out there, like an astronaut! Or a rocket scientist!” Allie says. God, sometimes she can be so dumb.

“You’re an idiot.” Alex deadpans. “We’ll just put ‘Message me if you wanna know.’” 

“Seriously Al?” Kelley says, uninterested and annoyed at this whole situation.

“What? Do you want to tell everyone you are a professional athlete? Do you want a bunch of horny assholes to swipe right because they think you are hot and make money? Do you want someone to feign interest in you because of your career?” Kelley shrugs. She might have a point, but isn’t that everyone on Tinder anyways. 

“Whatever. Just put something down and make the account.” 

“Okay, done. Now we just need pictures.” Alex is so excited about this. Why do I let them do this to me?

“Nothing showing my face,” I tell them seriously. I don’t need a bunch of stalkers figuring out who I am and showing up to my games.

They go through my camera roll and find a few photos. They show them to me to make sure I approve. One is of me with my back facing the camera at the beach, another one of me holding a dog, my face buried in the fur, and a third of me after practice, shirt pulled up over my face. I just roll my eyes and nod my head. They confirm the profile and squeal when the pictures of people pop up. They change my preferences so that only girls pop up and we are off. 

They start swiping right on all the profiles before I steal my phone back. God, why am I friends with them? I start looking at the profiles that pop up and probably overthink my swipes. There's a dentist from Colorado, swipe left, a teacher from California, she’s pretty but she likes cats more than dogs, swipe left, a cosmetologist from California, ew, swipe left, and a chef from Nevada. Kelley is about to swipe left again when Alex steals her phone back. 

“Kel, you can’t swipe left on everyone. She’s pretty and she can cook. At least give her a chance.” Kelley groans and lays back down, pillow over her face. “C’mon Kel. Don’t take this so seriously. It is just a bit of fun. If you think someone is cute, then swipe right. Nothing has to come from any of this. They don’t have to be perfect. Just try to have a little fun with it okay.”

Kelley just shrugs the comment off, even though internally, she is thinking that Alex might have a point. 

\---

For the next week, Kelley uses Tinder to pass time. Waiting in line for coffee, she pulls out her phone and goes on the app. Getting a ride to practice, pulls out the app. Laying in bed watching tv, she pulls out the app. She may not like the idea of it, but Tinder sure is a good way to pass time. 

Kelley is currently on the bus waiting to be taken back to the hotel from training when she pulls out her phone. She is so distracted by the app, that she doesn’t notice Alex has boarded the bus and come to sit right next to her. She realizes her mistake too late. Alex has seen her phone. 

“OH MY GOD! YES KELLEY!” Alex shouts out of excitement. “ALLIE! COME OVER HERE AND LOOK WHAT OUR LITTLE KELLEY IS DOING!” Allie, who had just boarded the bus came straight back towards our seats and asked what was going on.

“ALEX!! Shut up. The entire world doesn’t need to hear you.” Kelley tries to shush her. She looks around the bus, noticing all the curious glances in her direction and slouches further into her seat.

Alex realizes how uncomfortable Kelley feels and smiles at her in apology. Allie, still not knowing what was happening, looks at the two friends with confusion. 

“Um, guys. Anyone care to fill me in?” Allie makes her presence known.

“Oh, right. Well, our little Kelley here was just on Tinder. AND, I caught her swiping right.” Alex reveals, voice full of excitement and teasing. Kelley can’t stop her cheeks from turning red in response. 

“REALLY!?!” Allie shouts, making everyone look towards the three again. “Sorry,” Allie mumbles when she realizes her mistake.

“For fucks sake guys. Seriously stop yelling. We can talk back at the hotel.” Kelley tries to compromise. Both of her friends eagerly agree and quiet down for the remainder of the bus ride. 

They reach the hotel in what Kelley feels is record time and she takes as much time as she can to get off the bus, trying her hardest to avoid what is bound to come next. Right when she gets off the bus, Alex and Allie are waiting for her and drag her to the elevator and up to her room. She is sharing with Tobin for this camp, she quickly sends off a text asking her nicely to find another place to hang out for a little bit. Tobin texts back immediately, much to Kelley’s dismay, that she will just hang out in Christen’s room and to let her know when it’s safe to return. 

They reach the room and Kelley flops onto the bed, face down, trying to put off the confrontation that is about to happen for just a second longer. 

“No you don’t.” Alex says, rolling me onto my back. “Spill.”

“There is nothing to spill. I had nothing else to do, so I went on the app to pass time. That’s all.” Kelley tries to downplay. In reality, she is on there all the time and has even been talking to a few people regularly. She isn’t interested in any of them, but a few of them hold interesting conversations. 

“Bullshit.” Alex calls her out. She isn’t wrong but Kelley isn’t about to admit that to her.

“I am telling the truth. I rarely go on the app. Sure, I have used it a couple of times, but it's not like it was to do anything more than passing the time.” Kelley is still trying to downplay it. Sure, it's mostly true, but she has definitely used the app more than a few times. 

“Really?” Allie questions. Kelley silently nods her head. “Then you won’t mind if we check the app?” Kelley does mind. If they check, then they’ll see that she has been messaging people, and that will just prove that it has been more than a few times. 

“Sure go ahead.” She tells them. Fuck why’d I do that? 

Alex and Allie look at her questioningly, but then a switch seems to flip in their head and they grab her phone, typing in the password that they have known for months, and scroll through the app. “This sure looks like more than a few times, Kel. You have talked to this girl every day for almost a week.” Alex teases. Kelley just blushes, looking down at her hands and playing with her nails, a nervous habit she has had for years. Alex notices and puts the phone down. 

“Kel, you know that there is nothing wrong with being on Tinder right? There might be some negative connotation around it, but seriously, there is nothing wrong with what you are doing.” Alex is trying to be comforting, but all the attention is getting to Kelley. She wants them to leave. She wants to be alone. She doesn’t want to be teased or comforted or have any attention put on the fact that she is on Tinder. 

“Please, can we just talk about something else?” Kelley pleads.

“Sure thing worms. Servando is coming to our friendly next week. I am so excited to see him. He hasn’t started his season yet, so he has free time.” Kelley just zones out the rest of their conversation. She thinks about her Tinder account and why she even goes on it at all. She never even wanted to make a stupid profile. This is all their fault.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kelley finds a blonde beauty on the app

Kelley is still embarrassed from her friends figuring out that she actually uses the Tinder they made her, so she spent most of the following week without it. It has been 5 days since the incident and she hasn’t been on the app since. She even considered deleting it, but couldn’t bring herself to. Finally, the day before their game against Brazil, she couldn’t resist the bright red app anymore. It’s been taunting her every time she turns her phone on and by now she can’t stop herself. 

She opens it up and the first person she sees makes her breath catch. She’s tall, blonde, and has amazing abs. She scrolls through the profile and all the pictures make this girl look perfect. The girl, Emily, is 21 and is a student. This makes Kelley feel a little old, with the 6 year age difference, but she can’t stop herself from swiping right. The next girl is pretty attractive, but nothing compared to Emily. Kelley feels like she has found a perfect 10 in Emily and nobody else will compare, so she closes the app and shuts off her phone, deciding that she may as well get ready for bed. She has an early morning tomorrow for game day and she wants to be as well-rested as possible. 

She falls asleep with a smile to the thought of this random girl from her home state.

When she wakes up to her alarm at 7:00 am she groans and doesn’t want to get up. They have team breakfast at 7:30 so she knows she has to get up or else she will be late, but still, she snoozes her alarm and goes back to her dreams. The next time she awakes is to a constant banging on her door. She checks her phone, 7:28, and immediately knows that she is going to be late. She throws herself out of bed and picks up an old Stanford hoodie from the floor before going to the door and opening it. When she sees a frustrated Alex, she visibly winces. She knows this can’t be good.

Alex immediately pushes her way into the room, yelling at Kelley for being so irresponsible, especially on a game day. Kelley cowers into the bathroom, quickly brushing her teeth and when she comes back out, she barely has time to grab her phone and key card before being pulled out by Alex, who is complaining about how she is now late all because of Kelley. 

When they finally make it into the room where the team’s breakfast is set up, Kelley could feel everyone’s eyes on her. Jill looks up and says a quick “Glad you could join us.” before going back to her clipboard. Kelley is blushing immediately and mumbles a sorry before following Alex to get their food. 

Once she has piled her plate with eggs, sausage, fruit, and some toast, Kelley goes to sit with Alex, Allie, Tobin, Christen, Ali, and Ashlyn. They are talking about the game they all have later, so Kelley tunes out their conversation, and her mind immediately goes to the Tinder girl from last night. 

She is so beautiful and Kelley really wants to get to know her. Hopefully, they get matched and Kelley will be able to talk to her. Suddenly, Alex snaps in front of her face and she is startled out of her thoughts. She feels her face heat up as she hums in response, wondering what she missed. She doesn’t have to wonder long because Alex quickly fills her in. “Ali was just wondering what has got you so in your head.”

“Oh. Um, nothing. Just tired. Didn’t sleep well last night. Sorry, I’ll pay more attention.” Kelley lies. She hopes it isn’t too obvious that she isn’t being truthful, but luckily, nobody questions it. Other than Alex sending a questioning gaze her way every once in a while, the rest of breakfast goes by without any more incidents like the one. 

After everyone starts separating from breakfast, doing whatever they want for the hour they have until the team meeting, Kelley decides to go back to her room and take a nap. Her plans don’t work out the way she wants. Alex follows her out of the room and corners her while she waits for the elevator. 

“What’s going on with you?” Alex immediately questions.

“What do you mean?” Good job Kel, act dumb. Cause that always works with Alex…

“You know what I mean. You seem out of it. And I know you were lying earlier about not sleeping enough. I always know when you’re lying. So what’s up. You can talk to me.” Alex almost sounds insecure about the fact that Kelley lied to her. It makes Kelley feel bad about it.

“I know Janice. You’re my best friend. I know that you are there. And honestly, nothing is going on. I just feel a bit out of it. Sure, I got enough hours of sleep, but I still feel tired, so I’m just gonna go take a nap and fix myself before the game tonight.” Kelley tells her as they move into the elevator. She isn’t lying. She does feel tired. She may be ignoring the part about a certain blonde, but she isn’t ready to tell anybody about that yet. Not even Alex.

“Okay Worms, I’ll let you take your nap, but I swear if you are still like this at the meeting, I will make sure you tell me whatever is going on in that head of yours.” Alex somehow always knows when someone is lying, Kelley is no exception, and that frustrates her to no end. 

“Thanks, Al. I mean it. And I will make sure to get p when my alarm goes off this time. Promise.” Kelley adds to try to make the conversation lighter. 

“Of course Kel. Have a nice nap!” She exclaims, walking down the hall to her own room.

Kelley walks into her room, flopping down on her bed and pulling out her phone. She immediately goes and opens Tinder. Instead of doing what she normally does, going straight to swiping, she opens the chat window and hopes to see if Emily has matched with her. To her disappointment, there are no new matches. She shuts her phone off and takes a nap, hoping when she wakes up, there will be a notification waiting for her. 

When her alarm goes off Kelley jumps out of bed and grabs her phone. There is a notification, just not the one she was hoping for. Instead, waiting for her is a text from Alex from 5 minutes ago telling her that if she’s not up in 5 minutes she is coming over. Right after she reads the text, there’s a knock on her door. Perfect timing, as always Kelley thinks as she makes her way to the door. She opens it and Alex makes her way in, not waiting for an invitation. 

“Yeah Alex, come on in,” Kelley says sarcastically under her breath. Alex bears her and rolls her eyes from where she placed herself on the bed. 

“You ready? The meeting starts in 5 minutes. We should head down.” Alex says, already getting up and making her way back over towards the door. 

“Yeah Al, just let me grab my key and I'm good to go,” Kelley responds, making her way to the desk at the other end of the room and then making her way back out. 

The two players walk towards the elevator and meet up with Allie, Tobin, and Christen who are all waiting. 

“Thank god you guys are here! These two are so fucking cute I might puke. Like seriously guys. Get a room.” Allie exclaims right when she sees them. Both Alex and Kelley laugh and roll their eyes. They know exactly what Allie means. Tobin and Christen aren’t the best at subtlety. Especially now that everyone knows about them and they don’t feel the need to hide. 

The elevator opens up and the 5 players all get in and make their way to the conference. 

They take their seats and once everyone is there, the coaches get started. The coaches put together a powerpoint and try to make it fun, but these meetings are just boring. Necessary, but so boring. A necessary evil. Kelley tries not to pull out her phone or fall asleep the whole time. This is all stuff she has heard before, and if it’s not, she’s sure she’ll hear it again later. 

She zones out and thinks of the blonde beauty again. Kelley doesn’t know why she can’t get this Emily girl out of her mind. She knows nothing about her except for what she looks like and her age. Yet, this girl is what has been taking up most of her thoughts recently. What feels like a minute later, the meeting is over and Alex is snapping Kelley out of her daydream again. They all get up and make their way to the bus, which will take them to the field. 

They warm up and go back to the locker room to gear up for the game. They head out there and play 90 minutes. They win 3-1. The locker room is so excited after the game, and Kelley is right there with them, celebrating like they just won more than just a friendly. That's the way it always is with this team. Every win feels like a championship win. After they all shower and get back to the bus, they head out to celebrate at some restaurant (don’t worry, Alex, it has vegan options).

The game and the celebration had been a great distraction from the blonde for Kelley, but once they are back at the hotel and she is alone in her room (Tobin’s hang out with Christen again), her thoughts wander back to this beauty on Tinder. Why would someone so beautiful be on Tinder anyway? That’s what is really confusing. This girl could have anyone she wants, why settle for someone on Tinder? She is a perfect 10, so why be on Tinder, where on a good day, you get a few 7s. She checks her phone again, but there is still no word from this girl.

She decides to make it an early night, the long day of work catching up to her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kelley messages Emily

It’s been a week since the game against Brazil and Kelley is back in her hometown of Peachtree City, Georgia to spend some time with her family before the next camp and the NWSL starts in April. She has had her days filled with old friends, her sister, and her parents. She saw her brother once, but he was only here for a couple days before he went back to work and his family in Atlanta. She hasn’t had time to think about Tinder at all these past few days. There’s a thought or two everyday about the blonde, but nothing like there was at camp. 

Today is one of the few days she has to just relax while in town, so she uses it how it should be used. She stays in her pj’s and binges Grey’s Anatomy the whole day, with some chips and a pint of ice cream by her side. It’s offseason, she will eat junk food if she wants. (Sorry Dawn).

Kelley pulls out her phone and she sees the red app taunting her again. She opens it and, to her surprise, she sees that she has new matches. One of them being Emily. She immediately opens the chat and thinks about what to say. What do people say on Tinder anyways? She decides to go for the simple message to start a conversation.

Kelley: Hey. I’m Kelley.

She goes onto the swipe screen and decides to pass time the best way she knows how- Tinder. Sure, nobody on here compares to Emily, but she can still try to pass time. 

Sooner than she thinks, she hears a new episode of Grey’s come on and that’s when she realizes that she has been on this app for over half an hour. She decides to put the phone down, turn the tv off, and change to go for a run. She’s a professional athlete, may as well act like one. She goes for a run to the park close by, then decides to do some sprints on the deserted field they have there. She works out for an hour before deciding to go back home. 

When Kelley gets back to her childhood home, she sees her parents’ cars in the driveway, so she knows that they are home from their day at work. She walks in, says her hellos, then goes back upstairs to shower. Once she is all clean and refreshed after her long workout, she goes downstairs to where her parents are in the kitchen, laughing at something while cooking dinner. 

“Hey mom, dad. What’re you cooking?” Kelley asks while looking at her parents who are still so in love with each other. She hopes one day she finds someone who looks at her the way her parents look at each other. Her mind immediately thinks of the blonde, but she shuts that down. If this girl is on Tinder, she probably isn’t looking for a long term relationship, especially not the love of her life. 

“Your favorite, Chicken and rice. Plus for dessert, I thought we could bake some cookies together.” Kelley’s mom responds. 

“Ugh. I love you so much. And you know your cookies are my favorite. Always have been always will be.” Kelley feels her stomach growl at the thought of her favorite meal. She loves her parents so much. “Is Erin going to join us?”

“No. She has plans. Apparently her family isn’t important to her.” Kelley’s dad jokes.

“Come on Dan, you know that’s not true. She loves us but she also has a life. Let the girl be.” Karen tells her husband.

“I know sweetheart, I was just giving her a hard time. Kel, if you see her around make sure she knows that I’m upset about her ditching us.” 

“Yeah dad, whatever you say.” Kelley replies, saluting him. She gets her sense of humor from her dad, he has always been like a best friend to her. She loves him so much. They are hard to handle when they are apart, but together, it’s even worse. They all start laughing at the jokes and then Kelley decides to go out to the living room to relax before dinner. 

She pulls out her phone and responds to some texts from Alex, Allie, and Tobin before going to the app that always seems to draw her attention. She sees that she has a new message and immediately opens up her chat screen. Emily responded. She smiles and looks up to see where her parents are before seeing what the message says. 

Emily: Hey! I’m Emily. What’s up?

It isn’t much, but it still has Kelley happy and blushing. She hears her mom call out that dinner is ready and she pulls herself together before going to enjoy dinner with her family. She’ll just have to respond later.

Later turns out to be 3 hours later. She got pulled into watching a movie after eating and baking cookies with her mom. I mean how else do you enjoy a movie except for with homemade cinnamon raisin chocolate chip cookies. Her mom’s specialty. 

She finally gets away and goes to her room. Once in bed, she immediately pulls out her phone to respond to Emily. She decided to just put something simple. 

Kelley: Nothing really. Just home with my family, enjoying the break from the real world.

Kelley hesitates before sending it. Was that too much? Should she have left it at nothing. Ugh it's too late now. Kelley decides to just exit out of the app and go on instagram. Usually she avoids the app because everything on there is about soccer, but she decided that with the offseason, she could use a little reminder about the sport she loves. She scrolls through and likes a bunch of random posts until she decides check Tinder before calling it a night. Surprisingly, Emily has already responded.

Emily: Ugh I miss my family. College is fun but being away from the people I love sucks.

Kelley: Tell me about it. My whole job is being away from everyone. I mean who goes to Jersey? I miss all my friends back in Georgia all the time. And my other friends around the country too…

Why am I being so honest? This is some random girl. She could start stalking me.

Emily: NO WAY! I’m from Georgia too! What part are you in?

Kelley: Peachtree City, about an hour out of Atlanta.

Emily: That’s so cool! I’m from Marietta. 

Kelley: Wow, look at us Peaches.

Emily: Right? Ugh I miss Georgia. I love Virginia, don’t get me wrong, but nothing compares to home.

So she goes to school in Virginia. Interesting.

Kelley: So what is a college student like you doing on Tinder?

Was that smooth? Why do I say things sometimes?

Emily: Actually, don’t tell anybody this, but my friends in high school made me get one right when I turned 18.

Kelley: Damn, you’ve been on here for a while. You don’t get sick of it?

Emily: I do. I’m not on here all that often anymore. Just when I get bored honestly. The people on here can be so weird.

Kelley: I know right. No one can seem to hold a conversation. Like you say hi and they respond with wanna meet up? Or send pics? Or something along those lines. You’re the first person I have actually truly talked to.

Why would I admit that? Kelley thinks. She doesn’t want to know that.

Emily: Honestly, in all the years I’ve been on here, you are the first person I have wanted to talk to. I don’t normally do this.

Kelley: Me neither. Honestly my friends made me make this account to get over this girl who dumped me and it’s really a good way to pass time. 

Emily: Yeah it is. Listen, I have to get up really early tomorrow, so I’m gonna call it a night. I have enjoyed talking to you though and I hope we can keep talking.

Kelley: An early morning? Now I’m curious, but yeah. Goodnight. I hope we keep talking too.

Kelley is really happy right now. This girl actually seems interested and she isn’t just on here for a hookup or some nudes. Kelley goes to settings and makes sure her notifications for Tinder are on before calling it a night and going to sleep with a smile on her face.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kelley needs advice

She wakes up the next morning at 11:00 am to get some brunch with her sister. The whole time she is in such a good mood. She loves her sister, but that isn’t the only reason for her mood. She woke up this morning to a text from Emily. Just a simple good morning, but it was enough to brighten her mood immediately and put her in a good mood for the rest of the day. 

Her sister takes notice of this immediately. She doesn’t say anything at first, but by the time they pay for the food, she doesn’t let it go anymore.

“You seem happy.” Erin simply says. 

“Of course I’m happy. I get to have lunch with my favorite sister.” Kelley responds with a teasing smile.

“I’m your only sister dumbass. And I mean you seem like, giddy. Like really, truly happy. More so than usual. Why?” Erin retorts. She isn’t wrong. I feel giddy. My chest feels light and I feel like I could fly. 

“I don’t know. I just woke up in a good mood. It’s nice. Just enjoy it. Don’t ruin it.” Kelley explains. She did wake up in a good mood, but it wasn’t due to nothing. It was due to a beautiful blonde who says all the right things and makes her feel light. Sure they’ve only talked once, but Kelley can’t wait for it to happen again. 

“Bullshit. No one wakes up in this good of a mood. But if you don’t want to confide in your favorite sister then so be it.” Kelley knows that Erin is just joking but she can’t help but feel kinda bad for lying. 

“You know I love you and I tell you everything. This just isn’t too important yet and I don’t want to jinx it. Let’s just leave it at that okay.” Erin’s eyes are so wide. It’s as though Kelley just revealed she’s engaged. 

“Okay, I guess I’ll leave it. But the second something happens with whoever has got you so happy, I am the first to know. Deal?” 

“Yeah sure deal.” 

The rest of their brunch goes really well. They catch up and tell each other about everything. Well, everything except for a certain girl. They separate at their cars and go off their separate ways. 

Kelley decides to go to her old high school soccer field for a bit. She misses it. Her high school team. Her friends that she thought she would always have. She hates how they have all drifted apart. Sure, she gets the occasional message from a few of them, but nothing like back in her high school days. She misses it. She parks her car and takes the extra ball and cleats she keeps in the trunk. She goes down to the field and takes a few shots. Kelley loves this sport more than anything else. 

She lays on the ground, looking up at the sky like she used to do after practices and games. She misses Georgia, but she wouldn’t change anything. She has everything she’s ever wanted. At least soccer wise. She takes a few minutes to just look up at the clouds and think. She has always thought best while on the pitch. 

Kelley thinks about Hope and what went wrong. She never really got the answers she wanted. Hope got cut from the national team after a few comments she made, and she was so angry at the world. Kelley loved her, but to Hope, she was nothing more than an experiment. She likes to believe Hope shared some of her feelings, but Hope won’t admit to it. 

After Hope got cut, she dumped Kelley and got back with her ex-boyfriend, immediately. They are now engaged. It really hurt Kelley when she found out. She knows Hope is going through her own shit, but she wanted to help her through it. She didn’t expect to be dumped like she was worthless. Like she never meant anything to the goalie. It still hurts Kelley at times. 

Kelley misses the brooding keeper. She misses feeling happy and needed.

But now, all she thinks about is Emily. She almost feels bad about not thinking about the girl she thought was the one. The girl she loves. The girl she loved.

Eventually, she sits up and pulls out her phone. She has a notification from Tinder. She immediately opens up the app and sees that she got a new match. She’s disappointed. She was hoping Emily has texted her back. After she responded with a good morning back, she feels like she has been ultra-aware of the vibrations in her pocket. There had been plenty of notifications, just none from the person Kelley had hoped.

Would it be weird if I double texted? Kelley thinks. She really wants to talk to Emily but she doesn’t want to be overbearing. She just wants to talk to the girl who has taken over her thoughts. She decides to just do it. If she wants to talk to her, then social rules be damned. 

Kelley: Hey Em. How’s your day going?

Kelley thinks that this is a good way to start the conversation. Simple and to the point. She doesn’t get an immediate response. She hides her disappointment and decides to go back home. The sun is starting to set and she is tired. 

When she gets home, she steals a leftover cookie before going up to her room to shower. As Kelley showers, her thoughts wander back to the blonde. They always seem to wander back to her. Kelley thinks about why she is already so attached to this girl she has only had one conversation with. She wonders if Emily feels even a fraction of what Kelley feels. She decides she needs to talk to someone about this. She can’t go to Alex or Allie, they would never let her live this down. She needs to figure out a good unbiased opinion she can lean on. 

Kelley gets out of the shower and decides to call Ali. Kriegs always has a level head and gives great advice. She pulls out her phone, no new messages from Emily, and facetimes her friend. Her fellow defender answers almost immediately. Kelley sees that she is just sitting on her couch, and thanks God that her teammate isn’t busy. 

“Hey, Kel, what’s up?” Ali greets her. Kelley never calls Ali unless she needs her and Ali knows that. Ali is Kelley’s confidant, and she takes that role in stride. 

“Hey, Ali. How are you?” Kelley doesn’t want to sound like she doesn’t care about Ali’s life and only needs her advice. Plus, the longer she can put off this conversation, the better. 

“I’m good. Kyle and I took the dogs out for a hike today and now we're back home. I was just watching some tv. But I don’t think you called to ask about my day, so what’s going on Kel?” Ali knows her too well. She is happy Ali is having a good break, but she really needs the advice she called for, so Kelley gets straight to the point. 

“I’m having a crisis.” Kelley dramatically states, groaning and tossing her head back. Ali chuckles at her antics, but still, in the most Krieger way possible, responds.

“And what might this crisis be Kel?”

“So Alex and Allie made me a Tinder account, yeah I don’t know why I agreed either, but I found this girl on there and I can’t seem to take my mind off of her. She is literally so beautiful, Al. I don’t know what to do. I’ve only talked to her once and yet I can’t stop thinking about her. Help me.” Kelley unloads. Ali looks kind of surprised, but recovers quickly. 

“Oh, wow. Um, I don’t know Kel. Why do you think she is on your mind?” Ali tries to uncover more information.

“I don’t know. She is literally drop-dead gorgeous and I talked to her last night and she is so nice. Like she isn’t one of those people just looking for nudes or a hookup. She has just captured my attention and I can’t seem to let it go.” Kelley knows that she likes this girl, but she doesn’t want to admit it quite yet. I mean it has only been one conversation. 

“Kel. I think you might have a crush on this girl.” Ali tells her with a face-eating grin. Kelley knows she’s right but doesn’t admit it.

“I don’t think so, Ali. I mean I don’t even know her. How could I have a crush on her.” Kelley denies.

“Kelley. You asked for my opinion. This is it. Even if you just started talking to her, you still have a crush on her. There is no timeline for these things okay. If you aren’t ready to admit it then that’s okay, but I think by calling me for advice, you already admitted it to yourself. I love you Kel. Don’t overthink this. Just enjoy it and see where it goes.” Ali Krieger is so fucking smart. How does she always know exactly what to say?

“I love you too Kriegs. Thank you for listening. I’ll talk to you soon okay.” Kelley tells her, completely serious. 

“Whenever you need me I’m just a phone call away.”

“I know. And I love you for that.” The two say their farewells and Kelley ends the call. She lays back in her bed and stares at the ceiling. Now what?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the support. Comment if you want to know anything.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kelley and Emily talk. A lot.

Once Kelley gets off the phone with Ali, there is a new notification from Tinder waiting for her. It’s Emily. Kelley gladly opens up the app and she’s what the blonde has to say. 

Emily: Hey Kel. Sorry I haven’t responded today, it's been a long day. But it was good. How was your day?

Emily is very vague with her response, which intrigues Kelley. Of course Kelley responds immediately, which should embarrass her, but it doesn’t. She is too excited at the idea of talking to the younger girl to care. 

Kelley: My day was okay. Spent time with my family and called up a friend. Why was it such a long day for you? What did you do?

Kelley almost regrets sending that. Was that too personal? Kelley feels stupid. Why would Emily want to tell Kelley about what she did.

Emily: I had a meeting with my coach first thing in the morning, then class, then we had a game. Being a student athlete takes up all my time.

So she’s an athlete Kelley thinks. Kelley wonders what sport she plays, so she decides to ask.

Kelley: Oh, I remember those days. Very long. Very tiring. What sport do you play?

Emily: You were an athlete too? I play soccer. What about you?

So she plays soccer too. Kelley wonders if she is any good and suddenly all she wants is to be able to see Emily play. She has so many questions. What position? What school? Is she good? 

Kelley: OMG! I play soccer too! What position?

Emily: I’m a defender for UVA. What about you?

Kelley: I used to be a forward for Stanford. GO CARDINALS!

Kelley is loyal. So what. She loves her school and doesn’t mind showing it.

Emily: Damn, Stanford? Do we have a nerd?

Kelley lets out a chuckle at the comment, the smile on her face hasn’t disappeared since they started talking.

Kelley: I don’t consider myself a nerd, but I do pride myself on my college education. Really the only reason I got in was because of soccer, but I loved it there.

Emily: NERD!

Kelley: Shut up. At least I went to a good school….

Emily: Oh NO you didn’t! UVA is a great school with a great soccer team, so I can do both.

Kelley: I mean, so is Stanford…

Emily: Shut up.

Emily: So how are you enjoying life after college? Stressful? Is adulting hard?

Kelley: It was definitely a big change from school, but I love my job, so it was easy to make the switch.

Emily: What do you do?

Kelley starts to panic. What does she say? Her mind is racing at the thought.

Emily: Sorry. You don’t have to answer that. 

Kelley: No I’m sorry. I’m just not ready to share that yet. 

Emily: It’s all good. I get it. I mean I’ve never admitted where I’ve gone to school before. It’s personal. I don’t blame you for not trusting me.

Now Kelley feels bad. She does trust Emily. More than she should at this point. She just can’t get herself to admit that she is a professional athlete. Especially not to someone who probably keeps up with the national team, and the NWSL like a college soccer player would.

Kelley: It’s not that I don’t trust you. I probably trust you more than I should at this point, but I just can’t tell you yet. 

Emily: And that is totally fine. No judgement.

Kelley lets out a sigh of relief at that and decides to change the topic. 

Kelley: So if you play soccer, then you must follow the national team, right?

If Kelley can’t tell her who she is, she might as well talk about something they might both be able to bond over. 

Emily: Oh my gosh! Do you? I follow the NWSL too. Nobody on my team seems to really follow the team, other than the occasional post about Rapinoe or Alex Morgan.

Kelley: Hell yes I do! Who is your favorite player? And favorite NWSL team?

Emily: Um, favorite player I probably have to go with a defender, so Becky Sauerbrunn. She is like my idol. I can only hope to be as good as her one day. And favorite team, probably Portland Thorns because I just love the way they play. 

Kelley: Ugh Yes! Becky is a queen. I wish I was as good as her. I also like Kelley O’Hara and Christen Press, because Stanford. And my favorite team has to be Sky Blue. Don’t ask why. They just are.

Like I said, Kelley might as well have a little fun with this.

Emily: Good choices. Kelley is definitely the hottest on the team, so I don’t blame you for choosing her. And I mean Sky Blue is okay. Not my personal favorite but they’re okay.

If Kelley was drinking anything, she would have spit it out immediately at that response. She certainly wasn’t expecting that. She doesn’t know what to say.

Kelley: Uh, yeah. Kelley’s okay I guess. Not really my type tho…

Emily: How can she not be your type? She is literally everybody’s type! I mean have you seen her body? And those freckles? And those eyes? God, one can dream…

Kelley has gotten over the shock and is now laughing at the blonde’s response. If only she knew. 

Kelley: She’s okay. But I like blondes more. And blue eyes. And people taller than me. 

Kelley decided to flirt a bit. She bites her lip, nervously awaiting a response. 

Emily: Is that so? Cause I might know someone who fits into all of that criteria ;) 

Kelley lets out a breath she didn’t even realize she was holding in.

Kelley: Hmm. I may have to get you to give me her number then…

Not very subtle, Kel, she thinks to herself. Hopefully the blonde takes the hint then.

Emily: Is that your way of asking for my number?

Kelley: Maybe… 

Kelley: I’m sorry if that was out of line, but I really don’t like this app all that much and I just find texting a lot easier.

Kelley is pacing her room in regret now. Why would she do that.

Emily: (912) 975-8014

Kelley: Is that really your number? Because I wouldn’t be hurt if it wasn’t. 

Kelley: Okay, that’s a lie, I probably would be a little hurt, but I wouldn’t hold it against you.

Emily: Yes, Kelley. That is really my number. Now text me you dumbass.

Kelley: Right. Hold on.

Kelley saves the number into her phone and immediately texts the blonde defender waiting for her. 

Unknown Number: Hey Em, It’s me, Kelley.

Emily ❤️: Hey Kel. Sorry to cut this short, but I am truly exhausted and I’m falling asleep already. I promise that tomorrow will be less crazy and I promise to talk to you then. Goodnight ❤️.

Kelley: Goodnight Em. Sleep well ❤️.

That night, Kelley goes to sleep happier than she’s been in a while

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! tanks for all the nice responses to my story. If y’all have any requests or just nice words please comment!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily gets a call

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for the wait. Hope you enjoy!

One Month Later

Kelley and Emily have been texting every day since that night. Kelley knows she is falling for her, but doesn’t know what to do since she lives in another state. They live so far away, and they’ve never met before, but Kelley is falling hard for the blonde defender. All she thinks about is the younger girl. And the guilt she holds. She still hasn’t admitted her true identity, but she hasn’t exactly lied to the younger soccer player either.

Her phone decides to ring then, interrupting her thoughts. 

“Hey, coach” she answers after seeing that Jill Ellis is calling her. 

“Hey Kelley, how has your break been?” Jill asks her. 

“It’s been pretty good, but I’m excited to get back onto the soccer field.” Kelley has been through enough of these phone calls to know that this is just a polite question her coach always asks.

That’s good. I’m just calling to let you know that you are invited to the next national team camp in a week. There will be an email sent to you later today that has all the information.” Jill states.

“Okay coach. Sounds great. I’ll be looking forward to that email.” Kelley answers professionally. 

“Okay, Kelley. Have a good rest of your break.” 

“Will do Coach. See you in a week.” 

“Goodbye Kelley,” Jill says before hanging up. Kelley doesn’t take the brief phone call personally. Jill has a lot of phone calls to make and Kelley knows this, so she just smiles and prepares herself for camp in a week by deciding to go for a run.

Just as she’s leaving the house for her run, her phone rings again, but this time it’s Emily. She smiles as she answers the call. They have called each other a few times, but it’s always planned, so this is a nice surprise for the brunette. 

“Hello?” Kelley answers casually.

“KELLEY GUESS WHO JUST CALLED ME?” Emily screams into the phone. Kelley has no idea who Emily could be talking about, so she answers Emily’s question as confused as she is.

“Who?”

“JILL FUCKING ELLIS! I’M GOING TO CAMP WITH THE NATIONAL TEAM IN 1 WEEK! OH MY GOD! THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE!” Kelley is happy for the girl, but at the same time, she doesn’t know what this could mean for her. What will Emily think when Kelley reveals the secret she has been keeping? 

“Em! That’s great! I’m so happy for you.” Which she is, but it doesn’t sound as convincing as she would want. Luckily, her new teammate doesn’t notice. 

“I’m going to be playing with THE Becky Sauerbrunn. And Alex Morgan. Oh my god. And Kelley O’Hara. Do you think she is even hotter in person?” Emily rambles on and on. Kelley can’t help the smile that forms on her face as she sits on the porch, her run long forgotten.

“I don’t know Em. Please let me know though. Hey, I was about to go for a run. Call your family and we can talk tonight, okay?” 

“Sure Kel. Talk to you later.” Emily ends the call with a squeal. 

Kelley sure has a lot of thinking to do. She decides to call Ali to panic, knowing if she does so by herself, she won’t make any progress and just give herself more anxiety. 

She presses on Ali’s contact and, thankfully, she answers almost immediately.

“Hey, Kel. What’s up?” Ali answers, same as she always does. 

“I fucked up Al,” Kelley tells her, forgoing the small talk.

“What do you mean?” 

“Well, you know that girl I met on Tinder? Well we’ve been talking like nonstop and she plays soccer and she just got called up to the national team and I haven’t told her who I really am and I don’t know what to do. What do I do? What if she hates me once she finds out? God, and I let her go on about how hot she thinks I am, too. God, I fucked up Ali.” Kelley lets out in one breath, starting to tear up at the situation. 

“Kel. Take a breath. Good. Match my breathing.” Kelley didn’t even notice she had started to hyperventilate. “Now, I’m sure she will understand once you tell her, but I wouldn’t wait too long. You were protecting yourself, but it seems like you have gotten close enough that you can trust her and she will understand. You don’t have to do it immediately. Think about what you want to say. Just don’t wait too long.” Ali always knows what to say. Kelley calms down just enough to let out a response.

“Thanks, Kriegs. I love you. Sorry to interrupt your break again.” 

“Kelley you can always call me. Break or no break. I love you too. Now Ash just got home from shopping, so I have to help her unload, but if you need me I’m only one call away.”

“Okay. Have fun with your girlfriend. See you in a week.”

“Bye Kel.” Ali hangs up. Kelley decides to go on her run to think her problem through. 

Kelley is so immersed in her thoughts during her run, she ends up running about 10 miles. When she gets back home, she immediately goes to shower, then runs herself an ice bath. She checks her phone as she is in the bath, and sees 5 new texts from the girl who always brings a smile to her face. 

Emily ❤️: I know you said you are going on a run, but I’M GOING TO A NATIONAL TEAM CAMP!

Emily ❤️: Come back, I want to talk to you.

Emily ❤️: Call me so I can talk your ear off some more.

Emily ❤️: It’s been an hour Kel. Are you okay?

Emily ❤️: Talk to me.

Kelley feels bad for worrying the blonde, but she doesn’t know how to respond right now, so she goes for a simple avoidance.

Kelley: Hey, sorry. Just got back and showered. My parents are forcing me to go out to dinner with them right now tho, so I’ll text you later.

Emily ❤️: Oh. Okay. Talk soon ❤️.

Kelley: ❤️

She puts her phone down and sits back into the bath some more, wincing at the temperature. Soon enough her timer goes off and she flings herself out quickly. She hops into bed and takes a nap, deciding to sleep on her thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the support! I love reading the comments so please keep them coming!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Camp with Kelley and Emily... and the rest of the USWNT

Kelley is at the airport, getting checked in for her flight to California for camp. She has been distant from Emily on her phone because she decided that she wants to tell her in person, but it’s hard to keep the secret now that she knows they’ll be meeting. It’s easier to lie to someone when you don’t know if you’ll ever meet them. She sighs and makes her way through security before getting to her gate and on her flight. 

She gets the window seat, which she is happy about, but is wedged next to some old guy who smells strongly of alcohol. She quickly buries her face in her sweatshirt to try to stop the smell and leans her head on the side of the plane to fall asleep. 

Kelley is woken up by the flight attendant on the speakers announcing they are landing soon. She wipes off the remaining sleep on her face and checks the time on her phone. 9:15 am. Why does Jill book such early flights Kelley asks herself. She gets off the plane and as she's making her way towards the baggage claim, she sees a Starbucks and smiles to herself, getting in line. She orders a Cortado and starts back up towards the baggage claim. 

Once she gets there, she sees some members of her team gathered in a small circle and makes her way towards them, jumping on Alex’s back.

“What the fuck? Kelley, I swear to god if you don’t get off of me.” Kelley immediately hops off. She can tell Alex hasn’t had her coffee yet and it was an early flight, so she wasn’t in the mood. 

“Sorry Al. I’m just excited to see my best friend again. It’s been too long.” Kelley tries to sweet-talk Alex.

“It has barely been a month, Kel.” Kelley starts to pout. “Okay. I missed you too Worms.” Kelley beams up at her friends at that.

“Love you, Janice.” 

“Love you too.” 

“So now that that’s over with, we’re just waiting for Allie and Pinoe and then we can head back to the hotel,” Ashlyn says. She offered to drive the bus because Ali was on a different flight than her after visiting her family and this is the group Ali is in.

Just then, the two walk up with their bags and they head to the van for the drive to the hotel.

They get to the hotel and meet up with most of the team in the lobby. There is one more group coming in 15 minutes. The team hangs out and catches up with one another until the final wave of people come in. Kelley feels her breath catch at the sight of the blonde she’s been talking to online. Ali nudges her and she attempts to pull herself together. Jill comes in and does her spiel and then Dawn gives out their room assignments.

“Alright. We’ve got Rapinoe and Harris, Heath and Davidson, Press and Rodriguez, Long and Brian, Pugh and Ertz, Sullivan and Dunn, Sauerbrunn and Naeher, Horan and Lavelle, O’Hara and Sonnett, Lloyd and Franch, Leroux and Dahlkemper, Morgan and McDonald, and Mewis and Krieger.” Everyone comes and gets their keys as she goes through the list, most of the players happy with their assignments. Kelley starts to freak out. She has to talk to Emily when they get to their room, but she doesn’t know how.

They get to the elevator, and Kelley’s phone vibrates with a text. She pulls it out and sees it's from Emily. She quickly puts her phone back in her pocket. She doesn’t want Emily to see and figure it out before she has the chance to tell her. Ali notices her nerves and decides to pull her aside once they get out of the elevator. 

“Breathe Kel. She seems like a good person. I’m sure she’s going to understand. Just breathe and tell her the truth. And if it doesn’t go as planned my room is right down the hall.” Ali is the best.

“Thanks, Kriegs. Wish me luck.” Kelley jokingly says, but secretly needs it. 

“Good luck Kel. You’ll be alright.” And with that Ali walks to her room and Kelley is left all alone. 

She slowly makes her way to her room, going through the speech she has practiced so many times this past week before unlocking the door and entering. 

Emily is laying on one of the beds staring at the ceiling, smiling. Kelley remembers her first camp. She was so excited to be called up and to be playing with the best of the best.

When Emily hears the door close, she sits up and smiles at Kelley. Kelley doesn’t remember anything she has practiced now that she is looking at the girl she is falling for in person. Kelley shakes herself out of her thoughts and goes over to put her stuff down on the other bed. She takes a breath to collect her thoughts, but as she turns around, Emily gets up and goes over to Kelley.

“Hi. I’m Emily Sonnett.” She puts her hand out for a handshake and suddenly all of Kelley’s nerves disappear. 

“I know,” Kelley admits. “Can I talk to you about something?” Might as well get this over with.

“Yeah… Sure what’s up?” Emily seems confused, which is reasonable given she doesn’t know who Kelley is.

“So I have to admit something, and I’m sorry in advance. I’m really sorry Em.” Kelley takes a breath to collect herself. Emily nods her head slowly, still noticeably confused, but shows Kelley she’s listening. “So, Alex and Allie made me get a Tinder after my last girlfriend broke my heart, and at first I was really against the idea, but I eventually started to use the app in my free time, you know. Well, I met this girl on there and she is really great, but I’ve been keeping my true identity a secret, because I didn’t want you to keep talking to me just because I’m a professional soccer player, but now you got called up to the national team and we’re roommates, and I swear I wanted to tell you sooner, but I didn’t know how and I really didn’t want you to only talk to me because of my job or stop talking to me because I lied and I’m really sorry Em. I’m sorry.” It all comes out quickly as Kelley rambles while pacing the room, and Emily just tries to keep up with what she said. 

“Please say something,” Kelley begs.

“I’m processing.” Is all Emily gives in response.

Kelley continues pacing back and forth around the front of the room. She doesn’t know what else to do. She is scared of how Emily will react.

“So, what you’re telling me is that the girl I’ve been texting for months is you?” Kelley nods. “And you lied to me the whole time?” Kelley nods again. “I need time, Kelley. I need to process this.”

Kelley lets out a defeated sigh. “I understand.” And with that Kelley leaves the room to allow Emily the space she needs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friends! Please leave comments! Any suggestions, love, questions, or anything else. My Tumblr is wiide-aawake feel free to message me! Love you guys!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kelley breaks down and gets some much-needed advice

Kelley walks over to Ali’s room and knocks on the door, tears in her eyes. Sam answers the door and immediately lets the defender in when she sees the tears threatening to fall. Sam has never seen the older girl cry, and never wants to see it again. Kelley walks over to where Ali is laying on her bed and goes and lays down with her, cuddling up to her side and letting the tears fall. 

“I’m gonna go see what Rose is up to,” Sam says awkwardly before grabbing her things and leaving the two defenders alone. 

“What happened Kel?” Ali asks, rubbing the shorter player’s back, trying to soothe her. 

“She said she needed time. She looked so disappointed. I don’t know what to do. I really like her Al, and now I’ve ruined everything.” Kelley barely gets it out between sobs. She is so upset with herself for not coming clean sooner. She should have told the blonde when she realized how deep her feelings for her were. She should have never kept it from her in the first place.

“That’s understandable Kel. You dropped a huge bomb on her unexpectedly. She deserves time to think it over. I’m sure you didn’t ruin everything. If she liked you, this shouldn’t be the end of it all. She just needs to comprehend what you just told her. Breathe.” Ali tries to reason with her. She hates seeing her teammate like this. The normally happy and boisterous squirrel of the team, all depressed and crying. She doesn’t know what to do to make her feel better. 

“Thanks, Al. You’re probably right. But I don’t want her to stop talking to me because I lied. I really like her.”

“I know Kel. It will all work out. I promise. Now, how about we go get some coffee before the recovery session we have later?” 

“Yeah okay.” Kelley agrees. She doesn’t want to wallow. She has a team, a country, to make proud. This isn’t the time to wallow.

Ali changes out of her travel clothes and they head out of the hotel. They saw a coffee shop down the street, so they walk there and get their coffee, along with some food. They sit at a table in the back and Kelley stays quiet, slowly sipping her drink. Finally, Ali breaks the silence, “So, you excited for camp?” Kelley just lets out a small smile and a nod, not in the mood to talk. “C’mon Kel. Talk to me. How was your break?”

“It was fine. It was nice to see the family, you know. Not much happened.” Kelley briefly explains, trying and failing to keep her mind from wandering to the blonde defender.

“That’s good. I went to visit Ash’s family, then we went to see Kyle and my parents before she flew back to her family. It felt like a short break, but I’m still excited to get back into the swing of the national team.” Ali tries to provide a long answer to fill the silence Kelley is leaving. The mention of Ali and Ash does make Kelley a bit hopeful for her not-relationship relationship though. Everything always takes her thoughts back to the beautiful blonde. 

“I’m happy for you Ali. I’m glad you and Ash are going strong. If only my love life worked out that well.” Kelley can’t help but add a self-deprecating comment in. That’s just how her mind works.

“Stop the pity party Kel. You and Sonnett will be fine. Just give her a bit of time. Soon enough you guys will be the new Krashlyn.” Ali responds. Kelley lets out a chuckle at that. Of course Ali knows exactly what to say. When does she not?

“Love you Kriegs, but if we stay here any longer, we’ll be late for the first practice, so let's go.” Kelley avoids a direct answer to the unasked question.

The two defenders leave the coffee shop with the remaining coffee in their hands and head back to the hotel. They separate at their rooms to get changed for their recovery session and Kelley takes a deep breath before unlocking her door and entering. Emily is already gone, much to Kelley’s relief and disappointment. Kelley sighs and changes before heading down to the conference room the hotel is letting them use, which is set up with rollers and other recovery equipment to get the day of travel out of their systems before the real work starts tomorrow. 

Kelley enters the room and her eyes immediately find the blonde she has a crush on. They make eye contact before Emily breaks it and quickly goes back to her conversation with Lindsey, Sam, and Rose. The youngsters.

Kelley finds Alex and Allie with Tobin and Christen and makes her way over to the group. They greet Kelley with smiles and start talking about all the new recruits and who they think will be the best. Soon enough Jill walks in with Dawn and they get started. Half the group goes into the gym to get some work on the bikes and treadmills, while the other half stays to roll out and stretch. 

Emily and Kelley are in opposite groups, so Kelley doesn’t have a chance to talk to her during their recovery. 

\---

After the recovery session, everyone makes their way back to their rooms to relax before they have a mandatory team dinner. As they walk back to the room, Kelley catches Emily.

“Do you mind if I stay in the room and take a nap?” Kelley asks. She doesn’t want to make the new recruit uncomfortable.

“Yeah, that’s fine. I was planning on doing the same.” Emily sounds disconnected. She sounds like she doesn’t want Kelley around. It kind of hurts Kelley.

“Are you sure? I could just go to Ali’s room or something…”

“I said it’s fine Kelley. We’re both just gonna be sleeping.” Emily sounds tired. 

“Yeah, okay.”

Kelley doesn’t sleep. She can’t stop thinking of the girl in the bed next to hers. She knows she fucked up. She knows there’s nothing she can do now but wait. Little does she know, Emily is in the other bed thinking she fucked everything up too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys thanks for reading. You are the best! Leave me a comment on any predictions, suggestions, critiques, or love. My Tumblr is wiide-aawake


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Dinner

Kelley’s alarm goes off for dinner, and she pretends to wake up. She changes out of her workout gear and into some old soccer shorts and a Stanford hoodie, thinking Emily is still asleep. Emily, on the other hand, looks up and sees a shirtless Kelley. She stares at her roommate’s body for a minute, before realizing what she is doing and closes her eyes, blush evident on her face. 

Luckily, Kelley doesn’t notice her crush’s staring, and after she finishes changing, she turns to wake the blonde up. She lays her hand on Emily’s shoulder and gently shakes her. Emily, already awake, pretends that this is the first time she’s woken up. She groans, but sits up, staring at the freckled beauty with a slightly confused look on her face. Kelley is staring at her. All Kelley can think about is how the other soccer player can look so perfect after just waking up. All Emily can think about is the image of the shirtless girl in her head.

Emily tilts her head, startling Kelley out of her thoughts, and Kelley gets flustered. “Um, dinner is in 10, so you need to get ready,” Kelley states, blush on her face as she turns away to get herself together. All Emily can think of is how cute the brunette is. She gets up and changes into some shorts and an oversized t-shirt, right in front of the other girl. If Kelley did it to her, why not tease the other player back. 

“You can’t do that to me,” Kelley says.

“Do what?” Emily acts confused.

“You can’t tell me you need space and then change right in front of me, knowing how much I like you. It’s not fair. Your body isn’t fair.” Kelley answers, somewhat confident, but also somewhat stumbling over her words.

“You like me?” Emily is honestly kind of shocked. She knows they had a good thing going over text, but it still shocks her that The Kelley O’Hara likes her. 

“I mean yeah.” Kelley has lost all of her confidence at this point

“We will talk later. I promise. But right now, I don’t want to be late for my first team dinner.” 

“Okay” The two leave the room, the air between them a bit lighter after Kelley’s confession.

They make their way to the lobby and once the whole team is there, Sam and Rose running in 5 minutes late, they make their way to the team vans and head to the restaurant. 

Kelley and Emily sit on opposite sides of the room, pretty much the entirety of the team in between them, so they don’t get to talk at all. Dinner goes pretty well though, conversations between her teammates never coming to a stop. Kelley chips into the conversation whenever necessary, but most of the dinner was spent staring at the blonde, hoping to catch her eye. 

Emily can feel Kelley’s eyes on her and it takes everything in her to not look back. She tries to listen to her friends’ conversation, but the eyes she can feel on her is taking up most of her attention. She hears her friends start to laugh, so she zones back into their conversation and laughs along with them. 

Kelley smiles, seeing the girl she is falling for laughing. Hearing her laugh. It makes Kelley’s heart stutter. Ali notices her staring and smiling, and softly nudges her leg under the table. Kelley looks over and they have a silent conversation before Kelley blushes and tunes back into the conversation being held at her end of the table. 

Kelley can’t wait to get back to the room and finally talk to the girl she has been dying to meet. Dying to touch. Dying to kiss. Hopefully, the conversation goes well and they can be friends, or hopefully more than friends. 

\--- 

Dinner goes well for all the girls, which is something all of the coaches are happy about. They all get back into the vans and head back to the hotel. They congregate in the lobby and Jill talks for a few minutes. Jill tells them how happy she is about how dinner went and goes over what the schedule looks like for the next few days and tells the girls to get a good night’s sleep before dismissing them back to their rooms. 

Kelley makes her way to the stairs, avoiding the pile of USWNT members all trying to fit in one elevator. She hears the door to the stairs open up again behind her and sees Ali and Ashlyn coming in. “At least wait until I’m out of here to start making out.” Kelley makes her presence known. The two look up and see her there and Ash sends her a quick thumbs up with a smirk as Kelley continues her way up the stairs. Once she opens the door to her floor, she hears a thump against the wall and just knows that they are doing exactly what Kelley expected them to do. 

Kelley drops her head and chuckles to herself as she makes her way to her room, unlocking the door and making her way in before plopping down on her bed. Right when her head hits the pillow, the door opens again and she knows that she is about to have a talk she has been waiting for since she revealed herself to Emily. She holds her breath not knowing what could possibly come next. What does happen is probably the last thing she would’ve guessed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friends thanks for reading. Drop a comment on any thoughts, suggestions, questions, or whatever. I love reading them! My tumblr is wiide-aawake


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kelley and Emily talk

Kelley drops her head and chuckles to herself as she makes her way to her room, unlocking the door and making her way in before plopping down on her bed. Right when her head hits the pillow, the door opens again and she knows that she is about to have a talk she has been waiting for since she revealed herself to Emily. She holds her breath not knowing what could possibly come next. What does happen is probably the last thing she would’ve guessed.

Emily struts across the length of the room towards her freckled friend and grabs her face with both hands, leading the girl’s lips to her own, kissing her with so much emotion. Kelley doesn’t have time to process what was happening, because as quickly as the kiss began, Emily pulls back, putting some distance between the two. She is panting slightly. 

“Sorry, I’ve just been wanting to do that ever since we first started texting. I’ve been waiting to do that for a long time. I don’t care that you lied. Alright, that’s not completely true. I do care, but I understand why you did it. Now that I’m in the same place as you, well not really the same place, but like now that I’m also on the national team, I understand why you wouldn’t want to tell people who you really are. I wouldn’t trust anyone on Tinder with who I really am if I was in your position. Do I wish you would’ve told me sooner, like when we started to get closer? Sure, but it’s over with now, no going back, so I forgive you. And I really like you too, so can we try this?” Emily rambles. 

Kelley is scared to have another relationship with a teammate after the way the one with Hope ended. Terrified. She didn’t think she would put herself in this position again, yet here she is. Ready to risk everything for this girl. She wants to be with Emily, but she doesn’t know if she can put the team at risk again.

Kelley is taking too long to reply, and Emily is worrying. She is about to start on another ramble apologizing when Kelley pulls Emily back in and kisses her again. She’s speechless, so she does the next best thing she can think of to convey her feelings. She likes Emily and she believes that she is different than Hope, so she wants to try. They kiss for what feels like forever, but is actually only a minute. Kelley pulls back, her mind finally figuring out how to produce words. 

“Can we just take it slow? I’ve tried a relationship with a teammate before and it didn’t end well. I don’t want us to end, so can we just maybe not move too fast? My ex took the game way too seriously and our relationship was always second to soccer. I want us to grow together before we jump into each other, you know. I want us to last, because I already really like you, so let’s start slow.” Kelley needs time to process what just happened. She can’t just rush into a new relationship, let alone one with a new teammate. She needs to build a foundation. 

“I totally agree.” Emily seems to agree very quickly, though Kelley can tell there’s more she wants to say. “But can we still make out a bit? Cause I really wanna kiss you.” Kelley smirks and moves closer to the blonde.

“I think we can work something out.” Kelley whispers. Their foreheads are touching, and Emily can’t take it anymore, so she connects their lips for the third time. Kelley prods Emily’s mouth open with her tongue, and Emily lets out a moan in response that gets muffled into Kelley’s mouth. This wakes Kelley up to the realization of just how heated things are getting, and she starts to pull back. She leaves one last peck on Emily’s lips before pulling back all the way.

“How about we take a break and watch some tv,” Kelley suggests.

“Okay. But on one condition.” Emilly keeps a straight face and it makes Kelley skeptical.

“What?” 

“You gotta let me cuddle with you.” Emily lets out with a smile.

“I thought that was a given. Come here.” Kelley opens her arms up and Emily crawls into the bed with her. Emily immediately cuddles into Kelley’s side and lays her head on the freckled girl’s chest. Kelley grabs the remote and puts on Friends. They lay together watching the show, laughing at Chandler’s one-liners, occasionally sharing kisses, until Kelley notices Emily’s breathing even out and carefully reaches for the remote to shut off the tv, before cuddling into the blonde and fall asleep herself.

\---

The next morning, Kelley wakes up with a large weight on her back. She realizes that the two moved in their sleep and Emily is now spooning her. She smiles and leans back into the other girl before closing her eyes again. 

The next time Kelley wakes up, it’s due to the blonde moving from behind her. Kelley groans and immediately turns around and grabs onto Emily, not letting her go anywhere. 

“Kel, I have to pee.”

“No.” Kelley whines out, tightening her hold

“Kel. I love cuddling with you too, and I promise we can pick up right here after I pee. Please just let me go.” Emily tries to explain to the tired and needy defender. Kelley reluctantly loosens her grip and Emily slips out. Kelley pouts at the loss of contact, but Emily gives her a quick peck on the lips, and she can’t help the smile that comes to her face. “I’ll be right back,” Emily says, running to the bathroom, nearly tripping over her own feet on the way. It only takes a minute for Kelley to fall back to sleep, and when Emily returns from the bathroom, she can’t help but smile at the sight. 

Sonnett crawls back into the bed and puts her arms around the sleeping girl and pulls her into her own body. Kelley automatically moves closer to the blonde, even in her sleep, and Emily falls back to sleep quickly. 

The two wake up later than expected to a constant knocking on their door. Kelley groans and moves to open the door. Alex is standing there, arms crossed and frown on her face. Kelley realizes that they are leaving for practice in 10 minutes and quickly runs back into the room, letting the door close in Alex’s face. 

“Shit! Em, wake up. We gotta get ready for practice. We leave in 10 minutes.” Emily groans, but gets out of bed fairly quickly, getting dressed into her practice uniform. Kelley has to try really hard not to stare, and to stay upright while putting her own clothes on. 

Eventually, the two are ready to go, putting their hair up while walking to the elevator, with only 2 minutes to spare. Both defenders let out a breath of relief once they step into the elevator, and when the doors close, Kelley pushes Emily up against the wall. 

“Your body is so fucking hot. If we weren’t in such a rush, I don’t know if we would’ve made it out of the room. No more changing directly in front of me, unless you are prepared to take the consequences.” Kelley kisses her hard against the back of the elevator, Emily letting out a small whine at the words. Kelley pulls back right before the elevator dings, telling them they are at the floor. Emily is still leaned against the wall while Kelley walks out. She lets out a sigh, trying to get herself together, still processing what just happened. 

“You coming?” Kelley questions, not so innocent smirk taking over her face. Emily rolls her eyes with a smile forming on her face, before following Kelley out the door and towards their team in the lobby, where they then walk towards the vans that will take them to their practice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thanks for reading! Please leave comments-suggestions, questions, theories of where this might go, or just love! My tumblr is wiide-aawake.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I just realized that I had more written before I stopped with the story... Hope y'all enjoy. Haven't edited or reread it so ignore any errors

The team is at their last practice left before the game on Thursday. They are all huddled up, finding out who is starting against Australia the next day. 

“Naeher in goal. Krieger, left back, Sauerbrunn, left center back, Sonnett, right center back, O’Hara, right back. Horan, left mid, Ertz, holding mid, Mewis, right mid. Press, left forward, Morgan, center forward, and Heath, right forward. We have 6 subs, and we plan to use all of them, so the rest of you, be ready to enter at any moment.” Jill tells the group. There are a lot of disappointed faces, but there are also a lot of people who are happy for themselves and for their teammates. 

Kelley and Emily make eye contact and share a smile when they find out they are playing right next to each other the whole game. They focus their attention back on the coaches before someone notices the connection the two have. 

After practice, Ali pulls Kelley aside to talk to her. “Hey, Kel. How’s it going with you know who?”

“Good. Like really good. She’s gonna give us a chance.” Kelley said, smile spreading, taking up her whole face. 

“Good. I’m glad you’re happy Kel. Just be careful, okay.” 

“Of course, Ali. We agreed to take it slow. I have a good feeling about this. It’s not like Hope again. I think she really likes me, and isn’t afraid to admit it.”

“Alright Kelley. I’ll see you later.” Ali turns and walks back to the locker room, leaving Kelley on the field with only the coaches left on the opposite sideline. She takes a breath to collect herself, before following Ali into the locker room. 

Immediately when she walks in, she makes eye contact with Emily. Emily sends her a gaze that asks are you okay? Kelley nods her head and sends her a quick thumbs up before heading to her locker to grab her stuff for her shower. She takes a lot longer than she normally does, thinking about Emily and a little bit about Hope. She truly believes that Emily is different, but also doesn’t want to get her hopes up because Hope seemed different too, but she wasn’t. Kelley just didn’t know what to do. How to commit to someone new, when all of her trust in relationships has been destroyed. 

Kelley is scared. Scared of being hurt again, scared of commiting, scared to fall for someone who doesn’t feel the same. Kelley is terrified, because she already feels so much for the blonde. She takes a breath and steps out of the shower, changing, then heading back into the locker room. There is only one person left in there. Emily. She waited for Kelley. 

“Everyone headed to the bus like 5 minutes ago. I thought I’d wait for you. We should probably hurry though. You know how impatient they can get.” Emily tells her, walking over to her slowly. Kelley smirks and steps towards the other girl until they are touching, wrapping her arms around Emily’s neck, Emily’s arms going around Kelley’s waist. Kelley smiles and closes the distance. They kiss against the lockers for a few minutes, before Kelley pulls away, turning and grabbing her bag before taking a hold of Emily’s hand and leading her out towards the bus. No words needed. Their smiles say everything.

\---

The team decides to have a team bonding night in Pinoe and Ash’s room. They are all crammed in the small room, Kelley is sitting on one of the beds with Alex, Allie, A-rod, and Julie, and Emily is on the ground by the window with Lindsey, Rose, Sam, Mal, Morgan, and Andi. Currently, Ash, Ali, Pinoe, Allie, Tobin, and Alex are all fighting about what they should do. There are ideas flying everywhere. Mostly all bad ones.

“How about 20 questions?” Too many people.

“Um, a scavenger hunt?” Not prepared. 

“Uno?” Nobody has it. 

“Two truths and a lie?” Boring. Plus we know pretty much everything about most of the people in the room, so it would only be fun for the newbies.

“How about truth or dare?” Kelley finally contributes. May as well get to know people while having fun at the same time. Most of the people in the room agree with that decision, so that’s what they do. They all get into somewhat of a circle and Pinoe is begging to start with the bottle in the middle. She spins it and it lands on Carli. She chooses truth, unsurprisingly.

“Childhood celebrity crush?” Pinoe asks.

“Hmmmmm, Nick Lachey 100%. I was in love with 98 Degrees.” Carli answers. Carli takes her turn to spin the bottle and it lands on Allie. 

“DARE!” Allie immediately yells, earning some laughs from her teammates.

“I dare you to sing the National Anthem and post it on instagram.” Everyone laughs at that harmless dare and gets their phones out ready to record. Alli clears her throat dramatically before starting to belt out the notes of the song. It was bad. Half the team posted the video on their instagram stories, but only Allie posted it on her account, as dared to do. 

The game goes on, getting a little crazier every turn. Luckily Kelley hasn’t had to go yet, but she had a feeling she would have to soon enough. Just as predicted, 2 turns later, the bottle landed on Kelley. It was Ash who spun it. Not backing down, she picks dare.

“I dare you to kiss the person in this room who you think is the hottest.” Kelley was nervous now. She hasn’t told anyone but Ali what has happened between her and Emily. Does she go for Em, or play it safe and go for someone else. She looks around the room, making eye contact with Emily, silently asking her if it was okay to kiss her in front of everyone else. Emily just winks at Kelley, and Kelley has her mind made up now. How can she not kiss her after she just looked at her like that. 

Kelley crawls across the circle and straight towards Emily. Everyone else is whooping, but Kelley blocks it all out. Kelley silently asks Emily if she’s sure about this and Emily doesn’t respond, instead just pulling Kelley in and kissing her like they were the only ones in the room. Everybody else’s eyes went wide at the passion between the two, but soon enough, the whole room was whooping and yelling again, startling the two out of the bubble they created for themselves. 

The two pull away from each other, no matter how much they wanted to continue. They were in a room full of their relentless teammates. Now is not the time. The team teases the two defenders as Kelley makes her way back across the circle to her spot, both of their faces red, from both the blushing and the kissing. The game keeps going, the team forgetting what had just taken place, except Kelley and Emily want nothing more than to continue what they were doing. 

After what feels like a lifetime for the two defenders, their teammates start to leave, one by one. Kelley makes eye contact with Emily, and they both know it’s time for them to go too. They say their goodbyes and leave the room, all but running to their own, looking forward to some privacy.


	12. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue to hopefully wrap the story up all nice with a bow and everything. Sorry it is so short...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this isn't exactly how I wanted to end this story but writers block is a bitch, so after taking a long ass break, I have decided to just wrap up the story with an epilogue. I'm sorry I couldn't make the story longer but my inspiration ran low. Hopefully this ends everything well. Love you guys, enjoy!

“Slow.”

“Yeah right. Slow. We should slow down.”

The two are on Kelley’s bed together, making out, and it’s starting to get heated. Hands roaming, tongues exploring, bodies molding perfectly together. Kelley is so mesmerized by the perfect blonde under her that she didn’t realize how far they had got. She is finally pulled back into reality when she feels Emily’s hand on the hem of her shirt, making way underneath and onto bare skin. She rolls off of Emily, leaving the two laying next to each other, arms still touching, both staring up at the ceiling, slightly panting after the kissing that just occurred. 

“Wow.”

“Yeah. Wow.” That's all either of them could say after the passionate kiss they just shared.

The two of them catch their breaths and try to calm down after the heated makeout they just had. They turn to look at each other before breaking out into massive grins and starting to laugh. Laughing at how comfortable they are together when just days prior they barely talked. 

“Will you go out with me? Tomorrow? After practice?” Kelley asks, turning onto her side and leaning up against her elbow, and on her chin, question in her eyes. 

“I- um, yeah?” Sonnett responds

“Are you sure? Cause you don’t really sound too sure.”

“Yes I am sure. I just. I don't know why I am on edge. I want to. I really want to. But what happens when camp is over? And we go back to opposite sides of the country, you to Utah and me back to Virginia? I just don't want to start something we can’t go through with.”

“I am willing to put in the work if you are. I really like you, Em, and this isn’t just a thing we do during camps for me. I want to get to know you. I want to try.”

“Then yes.” Sonnett is beaming now, smile taking over the rest of her features until Kelley can’t seem to focus on anything else. “I, Emily Sonnett, would love to go out on a date with you, Kelley O’Hara, tomorrow.” 

“You are such a dork” Kelley chuckles out, leaning in for one more kiss before the two wrap each other up and fall asleep together.

\---

They go out on the date, and it goes amazingly, Kelley showing up with flowers and chocolate. The two laugh the whole time -- from dinner, to the walk the two take around a nearby park, all the way up to their shared room. They end the night with a chaste goodnight kiss, not wanting to go too far on their first date night.

They agree to keep trying even when they once again become separated by the distance. 

They talk over text everyday, trying to call everyday too, even if that doesn't always work out. 

They facetime each other at least once a week, usually more, and they communicate to each other what they feel, whether it is a simple I miss you or the more difficult who was that girl on your snapchat story?. 

They work with each other so well, taking advantage of the time they get to spend with each other, and working through the time apart. 

They put in the work, flying to each other when they have a few off days, spending breaks with each other when possible, and more importantly communicating with each other. 

While this isn’t the easiest relationship for either one of them, both girls are putting their all into it, trying to make it work out between them. 

On their one year anniversary they are back at camp together, celebrating with a nice dinner out, away from the other girls, just happy that they are able to be together. Emily says I love you first. Kelley says it back immediately, smile not leaving her face for the rest of the night.

On their two year anniversary, Kelley asks if Emily would move in with her, at least during the off season when they actually can live together. They move into an apartment in Georgia, right in between both of their parents’ houses. 

On their four year anniversary, Kelley finally proposes. Emily says yes and they go back to the hotel excited to let everybody know. Emily shows off the ring to everyone around and Alex and Allie are happily teasing Kelley.

They finally get married in August that year, Alex and Allie are Kelley’s bridesmaids since they are the ones who made her get the app where she met the love of her life in the first place, alongside Kelley’s sister Erin as her Maid of Honour. Lindsey and Emma are Emily’s bridesmaids since she had to include her sister and Lindsey is her best friend (A/N and I miss soran together in portland so big f to me). The wedding is even more perfect than either one could have hoped for. They finally get to call each other “my wife”. 

And they lived happily ever after, with the usually couple fights, but always forgiving each other in the end. And the make-up sex is always so much better each time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I guess this is goodbye. I loved writing this and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. Thank you for all the kudos you left and the comments, i love reading them. I love all of you so much. Thanks for sticking around til the end. Follow me on tumblr and feel free to dm me on there @wiide-aawake. 
> 
> Black Lives Matter ✊🏿
> 
> Stay Strong and Stay Safe guys. Until next time… ✌️


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